On Qualifications

People often ask me about what qualifications I have to be a pattern designer. They are interested in whether I had formal schooling in … business startups… fashion design… website design… photography… or any of the other hats I wear nowadays.

OK, most people aren’t quite that blunt when they ask. They generally veil their question a little more discreetly… but no matter how they ask it, it’s a fair question with a very simple answer:

I have none….. Absolutely NONE!

Based on my resume (below), there’s absolutely NO reason I should be doing much of anything that I’m doing now.

• I have a BS degree in Chemistry which included one computer course, involving the use of keypunch cards… that’s right… keypunch cards! (those of you born after 1975 might need to google this)
• I took ONE writing course in college & made a C. I never took another….
• The first time I ever even sat in front of a computer was when the City installed one in my office in 1998. At the time, it was NOT a welcomed sight because in typical government fashion, I received no training…  nothing…. not one course. They just told me to start using it and assumed I’d know how. I struggled with it for a month before I realized it was connected to a network. Up until that time, I had never even seen a website….
• Although I’ve had a lifelong love of sewing, my efforts were limited to clothing and home decorating items until 2003, when I made my first accessory item. It was a wallet from a commercial pattern….and it was so poorly written and the results were so awful, I KNEW I could do better!

All This to Say….

1- No matter what your age, FORGET about what you’re actually qualified to do. It’s means nothing.

2- Every day that you wake up is a perfect day to learn something new.

3- If I can craft a livelihood in a field that I had absolutely NO prior qualifications for, so can  YOU!

4- If you have, or when you do find something that you LOVE to work at, you should be grateful, VERY grateful, each and every day! Whether you’re a religious person or not, you should pause every morning and say, “REALLY? I get to do THIS?”

And now, it’s YOUR turn!

Are you in the process of learning anything new? And what would you like to learn next?

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